Bauchi, Nigeria - Following the bomb explosion that was averted at Unique Methodist Church Buachi on Sunday, the resident Pastor of the church, Reverend Timothy Aneke has disclosed that proactive security measures has been put in place in order to avoid a re -occurrence.
Fielding questions from newsmen yesterday, Aneke said "the church council has met and deliberated and have concluded that we would henceforth not allow church members,and particularly strangers to come to worship or enter the church premises with bags or strange luggages any longer"..
The Cleric who described the incident as unfortunate and worrisome disclosed further that church workers including ushers and security units have been directed to search suspicious characters while the entire church congregation have been told to be very vigilant and security conscious, and report any suspicious movement to the church authority.
He also said that part of the security measures now would include fencing the church compound and any members coming to worship will only be allowed to come through the front entrance.
Narrating how the incident occurred, Reverend Aneke said that he was just rounding up the service with a closing prayer when he saw some of the church members running away and immediately,there was pandemonium.
According to him, " I thought there was trouble in town so I came down from the altar to the congregation and I was told that there is a bomb in the church, I was told that a boy in his early 20's came in with a lap top bag , walked in and sat down in the church , pretended to be praying with others.
"But the way he sat down, he was not comfortable ,a situation that made them to suspect him and immediately he noticed that, he quickly ran away from the church and climbed a motor bike that was already waiting for him outside, the ushers pursued him but the motorbike quickly flew away". he stated.
Speaking to newsmen in his office, the SSS director in Bauchi disclosed that they received a distress call from the church at about 12 noon and immediately the combined team of Policemen and SSS men went to the scene.
The SSS boss said he sent his men in the bomb disposal unit to the scene and they discovered that it was actually a bomb that would have caused a lot of casualties had it exploded considering that it was during the peak of worship.